Nobody Else But You
by FlamingFlyingFoxOfDoom
Summary: While searching for the reason behind the missing children of Hijfred, Roy, Riza, Ed, and Al find themselves separated when they enter the mines. Riza and Ed are left in the dark, while Roy and Al are trapped in a literal ratway. How will these two pairs find their way out? How will they find comfort in this situation where they're away from the one who comforts them the most?
1. Holy Mole-y!

The lantern's light flickered over the walls of the mine, toying with shadows and distorting them beyond recognition, shaping them into things that weren't really there.

Edward and Alphonse Elric, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye patrolled the dark corridors. Their bodies were one edge, ready for to move with a second's notice. The abandoned mines of Hijfred were feared by the locals, mainly for superstitious reasons. But recently, the military had taken notice of them. Reports of monsters prowling the area, attacking travelers and sheltering in the mines were becoming more and more common placed.

Mustang's first instinct was to ignore it. But the hair on the back of his neck began to stand on edge whenever the mines were brought up. Rumors of an eerie blue light shining from deep within the mines didn't help and eventually the abduction of children became an frighteningly common occurrence. He had intended to just go himself, but his sixth sense screamed at him that something was wrong.

Now, Mustang never considered himself superstitious, but he had learned that sometimes the gut feeling is the best feeling to go with. So he brought his entire team. Lieutenant Hawkeye was by his side as always, and the rest of the team was scouting about the woods that surrounded the mines in pairs.

When they had arrived at the entrance of the mines, they were greeting by the clanking of hollow metal and the muttering of curses. Guns were instantly raised, pointed in the direction of the sounds. Fingers were poised to snap. The entire team was enraged when the Elric brothers stumbled out of the bushes.

Edward and Alphonse had heard of the rumors, and just as Mustang did, brushed it off as nothing initially. Then they too heard the rumors of the blue light and the monsters. They too heard the reports of missing children.

The boys had a suspicion of what was happening. Someone was performing alchemy in the mines, experimenting with perhaps the children who had gone missing. Or maybe the monsters just ate them. Past experiences told the boys it wasn't impossible, and the two of them were determined not to relive those experiences.

When they shared their thoughts on the matter, Mustang knew it was waste of time to try and get them to leave. He also knew there was no point in getting them not to go into the mines themselves, so he figured he and his lieutenant would go with them.

And thus here they all were. Traveling underground with nothing but a few lanterns lighting the way. The tunnels were wide enough for them to walk side by side and long enough to be unable to see the ends. Not only that, there were other tunnels that branched off from the main one, except narrower. So they had a lot of ground to cover.

Ed stopped in his tracks suddenly, holding his lantern up. At his halt, Alphonse did as well. And the absence of the clanking of Al's armor alerted the two adults that the boys weren't moving. Roy, holding the other lantern, looked to Edward with a frown.

"You hear something, FullMetal?"

"Ssh." Ed hushed him. Roy obeyed, a bit irritated, but he did. Edward slowly approached the wall of the mine, placing his lantern down as he crouched onto the ground, pressing his ear against the carved out ground. His brow furrowed as he bit down on his bottom lip. "Something's moving down here." He muttered mainly to himself.

The other three stayed quiet, letting the boy listen as carefully as he could.

Now, Roy had no idea how Ed's hearing was as good as it was, but he had also learned to not question him when the kid said he heard something. And right now, as Ed's shoulders tensed, Roy tensed as well. When he did, Riza did too, and Alphonse was already dashing towards his brother.

"It's digging up!" Ed snapped, jumping to his feet. Al quickly scooped Ed up in his arms, the elder brother snatching their lantern as he was lifted. The armored spirit leapt back just as the ground beneath them gave way. Ivory claws pushed through the ground, a beast crashing up just moments after. Roy snapped his fingers, flames forming and throwing themselves around the fleeing brothers and at the creature, setting is alight.

It screamed, a gurgled thing that echoed through the dark corridors. Alphonse had rejoined Roy and Riza, skidding to turn as he did so. Ed's eyes were wide, their yellow color reflecting the orange of Roy's flames. The monster's scream went on for far too long, echoing still as the fire burnt itself out.

As the echoes died down, the four were left looking over the charred corpse of the monstrosity that had dug out from under them. It was hard to tell, given how burnt it was, but it resembled a mole. A very large mole with very large, very sharp teeth that still shined white in the lantern's light.

Roy frowned, opening his mouth to talk when Edward beat him to it.

"What the fuck?"

Al nodded silently, eye-lights fixed on the dead creature. Riza frowned, eyes narrowing as they flicked over the mole. Roy took a step towards it, and his lieutenant's eyes shot wide open.

"Sir!" She snapped. Roy stopped and scrambled back, just as the mole lunged itself upward, digging its claws into the ceiling above them, pushing rock and dirt down behind it. But just as Roy was throwing himself back, the ground beneath him gave way into the hole that the monster left.

"Colonel!" Ed and Al both screamed. Ed leapt out of Al's arms as Riza charged forward. Ed, who was lunging for Roy as well, planted in his heel and did a 180, turning to tackle the lieutenant away from the collapsing ground. Alphonse grabbed a hold of Roy from the back of his collar, going to haul him up and the ground slid out from under him and throwing the both of them down the ditch.

The ceiling caved in, crushing one of the lanterns. The mine shook around them, making it impossible to keep their footing. Ed wrapped his arms around Riza's waist, holding her back as she tried to force her way to where the Colonel and Alphonse fell. He tried to scream at her, but his voice was drowned out by the collapsing mine tunnel.

Eventually, the dust settled and they were left in the silent dark. Alphonse and Roy were somewhere beneath them, possibly buried alive. Edward's throat was sore from yelling, his arms still holding back the lieutenant who was screaming for her colonel.

They were separated.

* * *

A/N

Hiya! I wanted to write something that explores some Familial pairs i like, never see. So here's a thing with Roy and Al and also Riza and Ed.


	2. Intermission

She was _still_ screaming. Trying to pull herself away from him, to the pile of dirt and rubble Roy and Alphonse had disappeared under. Ed's grip didn't falter even as his voice gave out and he was forced to stop yelling. He tightened his arms around the lieutenant's waist even though his shoulder port ached like a bitch and his flesh arm was hurting like hell too.

Eventually Riza stopped screaming, but she was still trying to pull away from him.

Ed thought maybe he should just…. Wait it out.

He pressed his forehead against the lieutenant's back, shutting his eyes tight. His throat hurt way to much to yell at her at the moment. So…. He waited.

Eventually she stopped struggling too.

…

"You done?" Ed said, cringing at both the pain in his throat and how scratchy and weak his voice sounded.

…

She pulled away from him, successfully this time. He fell forward a bit before catching himself on his arms. Ed felt around for half a moment frantically, afraid that she might have left or something-

"Your voice sounds terrible." Riza said somewhere in the dark. Ed chuckled briefly, cutting himself off with a cough or two.

"Yeah, you too."

Another deafening silence. Ed was going to say something again when he felt a hand on his flesh shoulder, fingers curling into it gently. He tensed, but calmed himself quickly when the familiar voice spoke again.

"I'm sorry, Edward."

Ed made a sound that may have been 'what?'

Riza sighed. "I… I shouldn't…. I…" another sigh "I lost my composure, I'm sorry."

Ed chuckled again and reached for her hand with his flesh one. "Gimme your hand."

"Alright."

…

Ed… didn't feel anything.

"Are you holding the automail one?"

…

"Yes. Apologies."

He felt Riza's hand wrap around his. Her grip was too tight and her fingers were trembling. Ed squeezed his grip a moment.

"You got any-" he started to hack out another series of coughs. He heard Riza shift, moving to be by his side and rubbing her free hand in comforting circles on his back. After some coughs, Ed grinded his teeth and tried again, summarizing his question. "Light?"

She kept her hand on his back, and Ed heard shifting. Then a sigh.

"No, unfortunately."

Ed snorted.

"I agree." Riza sighed. "Here, let me help you sit back."

A bit of awkward shuffling around and they both managed to sit back against the walls of the dark tunnel.

Ed stared into nothing. There really wasn't anything else to look at. The lieutenant was on his left, his flesh hand wrapped tightly around her fingers. She was shaking. But, now that he had a moment to think, it might be both of them.

"Do-" he coughed, internally swore, and tried again "Do you think they're…."

Ed couldn't make himself finish that thought out loud. And from how Riza's grip tightened considerably, it seemed she didn't want to either.

Ed was the first to break the following silence. Using the wall as leverage, he pushed himself back onto his feet, cursing internally at the pain that shot up his left leg.

"Alright," he said "let's go look for them."

"Right." Riza said.

…

"I know you can't see it, but I nodded."

Ed snorted out his amusement and took a bit of pride at the chuckle that got from her.

* * *

His ears were ringing and he felt like he was made of fractured glass. As his awareness trickled back, the sound of clanking and shifting metal slowly emerged from the ringing. His eyes opened and he almost screamed at the pair of red lights glowing just above him.

"Al?" Roy said. Apparently too abruptly, as Al almost fell over.

"Colonel, you're up!" The boy sounded far too relieved. "You weren't moving or saying anything and….well, it's hard for me to feel for a pulse, y'know?"

Roy forced a chuckle "I know, Al." He looked around, as much as he was able too, anyway. "Where are we?"

"Underground." Al said. "…Sorry, that's all I know. There's….." Al looked left and right a bit "Not much else to say otherwise."

"I….Yeah, I guess." Roy said, wincing at an especially painful movement of his arm. It hurt a lot, but….all things considered he was oddly comfortable being carried around by a suit of armor. "What happened?"

"The ground collapsed after that mole thing ran off, we fell down. Um…. A lot of ground fell down with us. I think I managed to shield you a bit with my armor, but I guess….I guess it wasn't enough-"

"Enough of that, Alphonse." Roy cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I get the feeling I would've just been buried alive if you hadn't helped me out there."

"Oh. Uh. Okay!"

"How about the Lieutenant and your brother?"

"I think Ed got the Lieutenant away from the hole before it caved in."

Roy sighed a bit, relieved. "That's…that's good. Then they're okay."

"Yeah." Al said. He looked straight ahead. "There's a lot of tunnels down here too…."

Roy furrowed his brow, narrowing his eyes in the direction Al was looking. "How long have we been walking?"

"Um…. At least an hour?" Al said, fidgeting slightly. "Probably longer."

"How long since we fell?"

"Longer than an hour." Al said, chuckling a bit awkwardly. "Sorry, I wasn't paying much attention to the time I spent digging us out."

"Fair 'nough." Roy sighed. He squinted down the tunnel some more. "You can see down here?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." Al said "I mean, it's not bright but, uh, I can see. It's dark, though, you're not blind."

"That's a relief." Roy rolled his eyes, smiling a bit. "…Feel free to not answer, but you can see in the dark?"

"Yeah." Al said "I'm not sure how that works, but I'm not sure how I can see in the first place. Or talk or hear or…move. I, uh, I do a lot of things I don't understand how it's possible."

"Hm." Was all Roy said to acknowledge that.

"Colonel," Al said before quiet settled in "Do you- do you think they're okay?"

Roy took a moment to process the question. "You said they didn't fall with us."

"Well, yeah, but, uh, I mean…. Emotionally." Al said. His arms tightened a bit around Roy's body. The colonel furrowed his brow.

"…I think…. I think they should be okay." He took a breathe, then relaxed. "The Lieutenant might be a bit frazzled, and Ed…." He trailed off, hmming.

"If the Lieutenant is obviously distressed, I think Ed will keep his cool pretty well." Al said, completely derailing Roy's deductive reasoning. Al's soul fire eyes darted to him a moment, and apparently his expression was amusing as the armored spirit chuckled a bit. "I know, I know, it sounds weird."

"Yeah. FullMetal can be _calm?"_ Roy said, disbelief dripping from his words.

"Yeah, oddly enough." Al said. His voice sound a bit less distress as he continued on "If he thinks someone needs him to be calm, he'll be calm. I, uh, I think his temper always how it is because he thinks he needs to be angry for me? It's kind of weird logic, but it _is_ Ed."

Al kept talking about his brother, little tidbits of information and small stories of their childhood together. Roy closed his eyes, pressing the side of his face to Al's chest plate. The armored spirit was rambling, he got the feeling they both knew that. But the boy seemed less worried when he spoke of his elder brother, and that was something Roy was happy to indulge him with.

They'll find them. It's best to keep their chins up.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Ed and Riza's scenes are going to be a pain to write because i'm a masochist who made it so they can't see and one of them can barely talk.**


End file.
